Peggy Gou celebrates her 35th birthday today. Born Kim Minji on July 3, 1991, in Incheon, South Korea, she has gone from fashion student and record store regular to one of the most recognizable figures in electronic music, with a label, a fashion brand and a global hit that defined an entire summer. Her story is proof that the road to the main stage rarely runs in a straight line.
From Incheon to London
Gou started classical piano lessons at age eight, but music was not the original plan. At 14 her parents sent her to London to study English. She returned to Korea at 18, lasted about six months, then went back to London to study at the London College of Fashion. While studying she worked as the London correspondent editor for Harper’s Bazaar Korea, and everything pointed toward a career in fashion rather than behind the decks.
The turning point came in 2009, when a Korean friend taught her how to mix. Her first gig was at Cirque Le Soir in Soho, followed by weekly sets at The Book Club in East London. In 2013 she began learning Ableton Live, and by 2014 she had finished her first track, Hungboo, named after the hero of a Korean fairy tale.
Berlin and the Underground Years
In 2014 Gou made the decision that changed everything: she left her fashion job and moved to Berlin to pursue music full time. She threw herself into the city’s underground house and techno scene, working at a record store while sharpening her production skills and building a reputation through eclectic sets that moved between house, techno and global influences.
Berlin gave her the education that no fashion school could. The city’s club culture, with its marathon sets and crate digging ethos, shaped the sound that would later carry her around the world.
The 2018 Breakthrough: It Makes You Forget
On March 2, 2018, Ninja Tune released her Once EP, and everything accelerated. Its lead track, It Makes You Forget (Itgehane), marked the first time Gou sang on one of her own productions, performing in Korean. The song became a dancefloor staple across the globe that year, championed by DJs like The Black Madonna, Ben UFO and Gilles Peterson.
The EP drew praise from NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard and The Guardian. Gou landed on the cover of Mixmag, played Coachella, Fuji Rock and Dekmantel, and joined the BBC Radio 1 Residency. In the space of a single year she went from rising Berlin selector to international headliner.
Kirin and Gudu: Building Her Own World
Gou never abandoned fashion, she absorbed it into her empire. In February 2019 she launched her own fashion label, Kirin, meaning giraffe in Korean, with early support from the late Virgil Abloh under the New Guards Group. One month later she founded Gudu Records, whose name means shoes in Korean, giving herself full creative control over her releases and a platform for artists she believes in.
That independent streak has become one of her defining traits. Like the women who pioneered electronic music before her, Gou built her own infrastructure instead of waiting for an invitation.
Nanana and Global Stardom
On June 15, 2023, Gou released (It Goes Like) Nanana, her first single through XL Recordings. A viral clip from a festival near Marrakesh lit the fuse, and the track exploded into the defining dance anthem of that summer. It peaked at number 5 on the Official UK Singles Chart, her first UK top 10, and finished as Beatport’s best selling track of 2023.
I Hear You and the Road Ahead
Her debut album, I Hear You, arrived on June 7, 2024, through XL Recordings. Across ten tracks filtered through a 90s house lens, it features I Believe in Love Again, her collaboration with Lenny Kravitz, and confirmed her as a fully formed album artist rather than a singles machine. Debut albums have become defining statements in dance music lately, as releases like HUGEL’s Twenty One also show.
At 35, Gou shows no sign of slowing down. Her 2026 calendar spans club shows and festival main stages across the Americas and Europe, including Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Porto, Sziget in Budapest and a headline show at London’s Old Royal Naval College this August.
Happy birthday, Peggy. House music is louder, brighter and a lot more fun with you in it.
Cover photo: Peggy Gou at Primavera Sound 2019 by Jwslubbock, licensed under CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Story via @housemusic.us on Instagram.